No, actually. It was represented in luminous green on a text terminal, represented by the letter "F". The Enterprise was an "E", also green. This was awhile ago. The modem was the kind you plugged the phone headset into. 200 baud. Yee-haw, talk about fat-pipe.

I built it up out of parts sourced from Sheldon Faworski who used to be a US astro-dealer. The Carton tubes came wrapped in Japanese newspaper dated 1980, so that's the best guess I have as to the vintage of the Carton optics I used.

Tough choice. Neither of the two have great optics, to be honest, but that could also be "luck of the draw" with me coming up on the short end. Based on my experience, I'd probably say "neither", but assuming there are some really good quality examples of the AT72ED and AT60EDT out there (i.e., mine are not typical), I'd probably go with the AT72ED for visual unless I needed the slightly more compact dimensions (due to travel needs, mount needs, etc.) of the 60mm.

The 60mm did do a bit better, to be fair, late last night after it had acclimated a bit more and the slab cooled. I'm going to move it to the taller mount tonight. I haven't given up on it, but I think my earlier verdict - good but not great optics - was correct.

Let me back up. The Carton is a meter-long OTA and was mounted on a Tak Teegul alt-az mount. I was observing on concrete. It was mid 70s today and mid-60s during the observations. The Carton's objective was roughly 6.5 feet above the ground for Vega, for reference. The AT60EDT was on a Nexstar SE. On Vega its objective was more like 4 feet off the pitch.

Hold on there, partner. What were the prevailing winds? Were these observations before or after Happy Hour? Red state or blue state? Boxers or briefs?

silly question jim as you said earlier that you have sold your FS60.but based on past experience where would you place the Fs60 optics compared to the AT60. just to know the best in the 60mm range.
cheers

Looks a nice small scope, of course one wonders if its as good optics wise as say a TV60?,going by Jims assesment probably not, an interesting thing to ponder is that a lot of buyers can be(and not meaning Jim) seduced by a multi element design thinking that automaticaly you will end up with superb optics.Owning a ways back a triplet from one of the big names I found it gave colour free images as adverised however when cranking up the magnification even close to where it should perform it fell apart, a smaller two element ED I had would (yup I know its an overblown phrase) leave it in the proverbial dust,DA.

Re the focusers on the two AT scopes, last night I did have a chance to use a medium-large sized eyepiece (new 35mm Panoptic) in the AT60EDT. I have on many prior occasions used the 34mm Meade Series 5000 SWA on the AT72ED, which is a similarly medium-large eyepiece. Here are my impressions of the two.

I am still getting used to the new R&P. The lock knob seems to gradually add friction. When you get it very tight, the focus gets stiff and you can see the box-like assembly that surrounds the pinion flex and shift as you turn the knob. With the drag set so that the focus was buttery, the mid-large load would tend to slowly slip outward and defocus. With the tension set sufficient to hold the big load, the focuser motion was stiff in effort but still smooth in motion.

The Crayford on the AT72ED is a different beast. It is very smooth, but not that easy to adjust to carry the heavy load. When stiff enough to hold the eyepiece, focusing action is a little stictiony.

For visual use, both are decent focusers. I don't at this stage have a decided preference for one over the other.

Thanks for sharing your impressions on the two focusers. From what you found it seems either one would need to be set a bit firm to carry a heavy load, like a binoviewer. Also, the design of the Astro Tech R&P looks different from the ones I'm used to seeing.

It's odd that AT has quality optics in their larger scopes but judging from your excellent report the AT-60 leaves something to be desired in that reguard. On the plus side of the ledger at least it isn't pink. David

I really like my AT72, yet haven't really used it for astro-visual as of yet (only asto-imaging). I have hooked up various combinations for imaging to test the train, yet this was under day light conditions on a distant tree. Perhaps someday I'll spend some eye piece time with it.

Wonderful read Jim.My TV60 will be coming sometime at the start of the year,I'm sure it will go up against my Skylight { If the breeze round here ever dies down and that's not a given in the north east of England }I walked two miles last night with my 80mm to observe Jupiter in honour of the great Patrick Moore,I only managed about 20 seconds through a 32mm plossl,I just bring that as a finder.When is your LOMO due?

The AT60EDT requires a surprisingly long time (for a 60mm) to cool down. Image quality improves somewhat after about an hour (assuming a 20F temperature delta to be overcome), but even so, it's not in the same league as the AT111EDT I also have.